Elevating mechanization to pioneer land consolidation in Kien Xuong

Pioneering mechanization in production

Early in the morning, heavy rain poured down over Kien Xuong. Rain hammered the corrugated metal roof of the machinery warehouse, turning the yard of Quang Lanh Agricultural Products Production and Trading Cooperative (Giao Ninh village, Kien Xuong commune, Hung Yen province) white with water. Outside, trays of young rice seedlings filled one corner. The seedlings had grown evenly and were lush green. Most had already been reserved for orders, waiting only for the rain to ease before being transported to Tien Hai.

Inside the warehouse, rice transplanters, tillers, and combine harvesters stood in rows. Seedling sowers, straw balers, dryers, and rice milling equipment also stood in rows. A drone used for spraying pesticides had become a familiar tool in the local farming routine.

It was hard to imagine that more than a decade ago, the woman standing amid an entire warehouse of agricultural machinery had only a few sao (1 sao equals 360 square meters) of farmland. She had never imagined that one day she would cultivate nearly 100 hectares of rice.

Around 2007-2008, in addition to running a household goods store, Tran Thi Lanh's family also made non-fired bricks. Several women from the village worked at the workshop. But whenever the rice-growing season arrived, the workshop was left deserted as everyone went back to harvest their rice. On sunny days, farmers worked under the scorching sun from morning until evening; on rainy days, bundles of wet straw became so heavy that they dragged painfully across their shoulders.

That scene pained Lanh’s heart. In 2008, taking advantage of a government loan support program, she borrowed additional money to purchase a used Japanese combine harvester. At the time, her thinking was simple: buy a machine and provide harvesting services, helping ease the burden on villagers while earning some extra income.

“I didn't have any grand plan. I just saw how hard people were struggling. If I bought a machine and provided the service, they would have less work to do, and I could earn a little extra,” she recalled.

Having a machine, however, did not solve everything. At that time, machine harvesting left higher rice stubble than manual harvesting. Some owners of small tillers in the village were reluctant to plow the fields afterward. Some even said outright that they would not plow fields harvested by combines.

With no other choice, Lanh and her husband borrowed money again to buy a larger tiller. But when they brought the large machine into operation to serve local farmers, they encountered another major obstacle. Farmland was highly fragmented, with plots that were square, long, narrow, or just wide enough for a single pass by the machine. Large machinery was difficult to maneuver and costly to operate. To secure enough work, Lanh bought additional small tillers.

Lanh smiled as she recalled those days. “We were so inexperienced back then. We just ran after the fields. Small fields meant buying small machines, and large fields meant buying large machines. We worked our tails off all year but couldn't see the money coming,” she said.

The first machines did not generate profits. But they prompted Lanh to rethink the way she worked and operated the fields.

Pioneering land consolidation and large-scale production

After the land consolidation and plot redistribution in 2012, industrial parks began springing up around the area. Young people in the village flocked to factory jobs. Most of those who remained on the farms were older. Some families kept their land but no longer had the strength to cultivate it, while remote or poor-quality plots were left overgrown with weeds.

Lanh could not bear to see this. Beginning in 2013, while serving as head of Giao Nghia village, she went from house to house and talked with residents. If a plot was convenient to cultivate, farmers could keep it and work it themselves. If a plot was difficult or too much of a burden, she would take it over.

She consolidated bits and pieces of land every year, eventually reaching several dozen mau (1 mau equals 10 sao). By 2018-2019, she had connected the plots into a continuous expanse assembled from land belonging to nearly 900 households. Later, although part of the land was reclaimed for local infrastructure projects, Quang Lanh Cooperative continued to maintain nearly 100 hectares of consolidated farmland.

With a larger land area, the way Lanh's family approached farming changed completely. The network of field embankments that had once divided small, fragmented plots was removed, making way for a large-scale field. The cooperative invested in an integrated fleet of machinery, including three tillers, four rice transplanters, 40,000 seedling trays and a pesticide-spraying drone. Every stage, from transplanting, crop care and harvesting to drying and milling, is now carried out through an integrated system.

Today, just 15-20 people operating machinery can complete work across nearly 100 hectares in half a month, ensuring that everything stays on schedule. Even households that wish to cultivate their own land can rely on the cooperative to handle all mechanized operations, leaving farmers to simply choose their preferred rice variety.

On the cooperative's own consolidated production area, the rice sown is of the same variety, and the transplanting stage is on the same schedule. Once harvested, the rice is sent directly to the drying facility, producing grain with consistent quality. This has encouraged businesses to proactively approach the cooperative and sign purchase contracts.

As a result, economic efficiency has increased by approximately 30% compared with small-scale production, with average yields exceeding 5 tons per hectare and annual profits ranging from VND 500 million to VND 700 million.

In April 2022, Quang Lanh Agricultural Products Production and Trading Cooperative was officially established with seven core members and around 20 affiliated members.

In addition to cultivating its own land, the cooperative has expanded its mechanization services to hundreds of hectares belonging to local households and neighboring cooperatives. It has also developed the “Quang Lanh Green Rice” brand to take greater control of processing and marketing.

The cooperative's next step is to fully utilize the value of the rice plant and leave nothing to waste. Straw is now collected neatly by balers and sold to livestock farms, creating additional income while keeping the rural environment clean. In addition to developing the “Quang Lanh Green Rice” brand, the cooperative is exploring further processing to create new products, such as traditional rice wine.

$ 1 = VND 26,260. Source: Vietcombank.